Koi o nomi shizu no odamaki kurushiki wa awade toshi furu omoi narikeri - Senzai Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

恋をのみしづのをだまきくるしきは
逢はで年経る思ひなりけり

Roma-ji: Koi o nomi shizu no odamaki kurushiki wa awade toshi furu omoi narikeri
English Translation: Doing nought but love,
like shizu thread wound on a spool,
what winds me in pain
is the longing as years pass
without our ever meeting
Meaning: I have done nothing but love; and what is as painful as winding thread round and round a spool of shizu cloth is this longing, as the years go by without our ever meeting.
Commentary: Book Thirteen Love Poems III 788

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Composed on the heart of love when hundred-poem sequences were presented in the reign of Emperor Horikawa"
Like the preceding poem, a love poem from the Horikawa sequences. Doing nothing but love, he says, what is as painful as the winding of a spool of shizu cloth is the longing that passes the years without our meeting. He overlays the endless winding of thread on a spool with the endlessly repeated pain of love, and through layered pivot words conveys the pain of a love in which years go by without a meeting.
The author, "Middle Counselor Morotoki," is Minamoto no Morotoki. The son of Minister of the Left Minamoto no Toshifusa, he rose to Provisional Middle Counselor, left the diary Chōshūki, and was one of the poets of the Horikawa sequences.
Poem 829 of this book also places "shizu no odamaki" in its last line and, through the winding of thread on a spool, sings of the repetition of love, answering this poem.

First line, "koi o nomi": "doing nothing but love," leading into "shitsu" in the second line.
Second line, "shizu no odamaki": "shizu" pivots between "shitsu," "I have done" nothing but love, and shizu, an ancient woven cloth. An "odamaki" is a ball of spun hemp thread; from "kuru," "to wind" the thread, it leads into "kurushiki" in the third line. It is the same phrase as the last line of 829 of this book.
Third line, "kurushiki wa": pivoting between "kuru," winding the thread, and "kurushiki," "painful." "What is painful."
Fourth line, "awade toshi furu": "de" is a negative conjunctive particle, "passing the years without meeting."
Fifth line, "omoi narikeri": "keri" expresses realization, "is that longing, I find."
Author: Minamoto no Morotoki
Source: Senzai Wakashu
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